Promotional cards (TCG)

Black Star Promos redirects here. For the set of promotional figures for the Trading Figure Game, see Black Star Promo (TFG).

A great many Promotional card sets have been produced over the years for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Unlike regular Expansion sets and Booster packs, Promotional cards are not available for purchase in stores. Instead, they are given away as special gifts. Categories of Promotional cards include:

Miscellaneous Sets

POP Series

Play! Pokémon, formerly known as Pokémon Organized Play or POP for short, were special Booster packs that contained only two cards. This series started in September 2004, with a new set released roughly once every six months, until September 2009. These cards were typically only found by participating in organized play events but were occasionally included in Value Packs sold in stores. There were nine POP sets in total. They were created to bring useful cards that had been rotated out of play back into the game, as well as exclusive cards. With an increasing number of alternate-art Promo cards in Japan, the POP sets also served as a vehicle to bring them to the West. The usefulness of the latest POP sets were a subject of debate within the Pokémon community; collectors praising the releases in English, while they faced scrutiny by players, as many cards were the same as those in then current Standard format.

Black Star Promos

Exclusive cards for promotional events such as tournaments, special events or through Pokémon-related merchandise. These all have a black star with the word "PROMO" written across it where the expansion symbol would normally occur, giving them their name as Black Star Promos. Only the first set was produced by Wizards of the Coast rather than Nintendo.